It looks to me as if you guys in the US have to jump through much bigger hoops to get your testicles removed than here in Australia. I did 2 injections of Calcium Chloride and 2 sets of ultrasound scans, each
My testicles were about the same size as dvdbll's a
good blood flow all over. When I went to see my urologist, he put the scans up on his screen and remarked that he could see significant areas of inflammation and then suggested removal of both without my having to prompt him at all. He then stated that he could possibly save part of the left one, but I told him that I wanted them both gone.
After the surgery which was done on March 15th this year, he told me that once he got inside my scrotum he noticed that the left testicle was actually more damaged than it looked on the scan and that he had found a granuloma higher up on the spermatic chord which would have necessitated removal of that one anyway.
I went this route due to medical necessity resulting from PVPS and after reading about the CaCl injections on the net, I read this thread from start to finish before doing the first injection which was done on December 22nd. The second was done on January 2nd. I can honestly say that every bit of discomfort suffered as a result of the injections was worth the end result. I actually had very little pain from the injections as I was on a high dose Tramadol for the original pain management and this took care of the pain from the injections, so my worst side effect was the discomfort of having severely swollen testicles.
I am taking T replacement as it was never my intention to get rid of my T at all. Also due to the effects of the PVPS, my T level had been pretty near to castrate level and I had been on T replacement prior to the surgery. I am now very happy with the result and have no more pain and am now totally drug free.